Painted Dining Room {Reveal}

How did you spend your weekend? I painted my dining room!

It only took me 2 1/2 years of wanting to get around to doing -- way to go, me! My dining room is my least favorite room to paint because of all the doors and trim I have to paint around, so while I've wanted to paint the trim forever, I knew it would be a beast...

...and I was right. 

Two rolls of painters tape, sixteen (!) total  hours of serious painting, one tube of high-wire painter's caulk, and several doses of ibuprofen for neck spasms later, and I'm still incredibly glad I went to the trouble. For me the cost (in labor), while high, was worth the end result... let me say though: I'd never do it again. Ha!

Friends: painting over wood paneling can be tricky enough because it can bleed through if you don't prime it right (with oil-based stain blocking primer), and if it's tongue and groove like mine it can be full of nooks and crannies that need to be caulked. In addition, painting ceilings is something most people don't look forward to in the first place... but vaulted ceilings made of glossy orange tongue and groove paneling, well that's pretty much my own personal little seventh circle of painting hell. 

So if I ever move to another house with this sort of ceiling and I decide to paint it on my own, please slap me upside the head and remind me I promised to hire painters.

Back to the joy, though... love my dining room! Love it, love it, love it! It's so bright, and although I originally left the beams dark to appease the husband (men and their stained wood, go figure), I actually like the contrast and I think it ties the ceiling in nicely to all the dark wood windows in the room and throughout the house.

I had to run right out to my front yard and pick some Lilies of the Valley to celebrate.

Here's a reminder of how the room used to look:

and here are a couple more after shots!

Do you like the change as much as I do? Because I need someone to tell me I'm normal for wanting to pitch a tent and live in there for a few days.

Sharing at Home Stories A to Z, Thrifty Decor Chick, The Shabby Creek Cottage